Through Their Eyes
by Alex Sambora
Summary: Free-verse poems told through the eyes of the characters on or around the time of Caesar's assassination.
1. Caesar Autem Lapsum, Bruté

"Et tú, Bruté?"  
Those were your last living words  
And then, out of fear,  
you covered your face with your cloak, not wanting to see me do my part  
I can understand why though  
You treated me as though I were your son  
and then I do this to you, the Northernmost Star

Though I do it for Rome's sake,  
not like my co-conspirators,  
I cried bloody tears as I ran from the Senate,  
for I loved you like a friend, or a father  
or even a brother  
Yet you still died by my wound

Guilt, fear, loss, hate  
All these I felt when you died  
I didn't love you less  
I just loved Rome more  
I know now that no action can undo my deed

Cassius told me I would feel better in a few days  
But it's been two years since then  
I still feel bad about what I've done  
I hate myself, just so you know  
And as I lose this battle, I take my life

Guilt, fear, loss, hate  
All these I felt when you died  
I didn't love you less  
I just loved Rome more  
I know now that no action can undo my deed

This battle is lost, Julius  
You've won this battle I fight  
Congratulations, lover  
I am defeated  
You've beaten me  
Let me just say this once more:

Guilt, fear, loss, hate  
All these I felt when you died  
I didn't love you less  
I just loved Rome more  
I know now that no action can undo my deed

Caesar, I apologize  
Caesar, I love you  
Caesar, I miss you  
Caesar, goodbye  
Goodbye, dear Caesar, the North Star's epitome

Now fall, Brutus  
Fall like you made Caesar do


	2. Mortuus Inside Mea Anima Ad

Dead inside  
I've known for some time I am that  
Thus is the reason I am so harsh and manipulative  
I have an abused past,  
One with unhealable wounds and scars that will never go away  
Caius Cassius' heart is torn to pieces  
"Trust is like a mirror,  
You can fix it if it's broke"  
But, like symbols of harm, you can still see it's cracks in the reflection  
O Jupiter, I, Cassius, am ready  
For what, you wonder?  
To lay down my sins  
For regardless of where I am  
I have heard a new prayer:  
"If I shall die before I wake,  
I pray the lord my soul to take"  
I have died before realizing my wrongs  
But still...  
My soul is yours to take


	3. Et tú, Bruté?

I treated you as my son  
How could you do this to me?  
I pardon you, APOLOGIZED to you,  
after you sided with Pompey at Pharsalus  
and this is the thanks Caesar gets?  
Et sic, sic reddis mihi?  
Meum filium, I don't understand  
Puer mea, Bruté...  
Why did you join them?  
Was it Cassius, lean and deceiving as he is?  
Or the sickly Ligarius?  
Decius Brutus, or even divine Casca?  
Who, Marcus?  
Who talked you into conspiring with them?  
Oro obscero vos...  
Non! Dolor tui proditione est nocendum cor meum!  
O expectare, suuspeius quamquod  
'Tis just the knife of you, Marcus Junius Brutus, my dear friend  
So now, as I cover my face to keep yours from my view,  
Et tú, Bruté?  
Ergo cadunt, Caesar

TRANSLATIONS:

**Et sic, sic reddis mihi?** And in this way, so be returned to me?

**Meum filium **My son

**Puer mea, Bruté... **My boy, my friend...

**Oro obscero vos... **Please, I beg of you...

**Non! Dolor tui proditione est nocendum cor meum!** No! The pain of betrayal is hurting my heart!

**O expectare, suus peius quam quod** Oh wait, it's worse than that

**Et tú, Bruté? **And you, Brutus?

**Ergo cadunt, Caesar!** Then fall, Caesar!


	4. O Cara

"Calphurnia, those dreams were nothing"  
You said this as I watched you leave  
But, Caesar, you didn't heed  
If you'd listened to me,  
your wife who loved you madly,  
then I wouldn't have to deal with this,  
you dying in my arms, as the senators ran  
Antonio heard the commotion and entered  
He knelt down and, as he placed your arms on your stomach,  
shed a single tear and stood  
He took you away from me, your blood staining me  
He caught Brutus and Cassius outside,  
demanding to know what happened  
I didn't hear, just cried,  
my tears mixing with your blood  
I couldn't hear anything over my pounding heart  
A few days passed and Antonio spoke at your funeral after Brutus left  
Again I coolant hear anything but my heart and saw nothing but your body  
Suddenly someone shouted, "Kill them!"  
And Antonio lit up your body  
Now, a few months after the last of your conspirators' deaths,  
I lay on your side if our bed, crying  
I love and miss you, Gaius Julius Caesar


End file.
